President Calvin Coolidge

The Laundry

This room originally occupied the entire area between the kitchen and the back of the house; part of it had to be taken out to build the corridor.

All the family washing and ironing was done here. Clothes were boiled in the copper wash boiler on the kitchen stove. The clothes were then lifted out with the long forked stick and dropped, boiling hot, into the round wash tub. They were scrubbed on the wash board, put through the wringer in the next tub, rinsed, and hung outside to dry. The "sad irons" were heated on the kitchen stove. The ironing board was placed over two chair backs.